


Razorblade

by Jeevey



Category: Oasis (Band)
Genre: M/M, Shaving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:41:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23726227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeevey/pseuds/Jeevey
Summary: Liam needs to shave. Noel knows how.
Relationships: Liam Gallagher/Noel Gallagher
Comments: 14
Kudos: 40





	Razorblade

It was a Saturday morning and Noel had just stepped out of the shower, groggy with last night’s drinking, when he saw that his shaving things had been messed with. Leaving the can smeared with shaving foam or hairs stuck in the blade were things he would never do. He liked to keep his things nice. He looked at them a moment, scrolling through all the things that could have gone wrong with them in his mind, but really there was only one. 

He crossed the landing to the room he shared with his brother. He found Liam in bed with an empty cereal bowl on the side table, Noel’s own headphones on, and Blondie’s _Heart of Glass_ on his lap. Liam didn’t like _Heart of Glass_ , of course; he liked Debbie Harry’s tongue curled out to lick the edge of a bare record on the album cover, practically life-size. Whatever. Noel had felt that way at fifteen too. Now he was above that, though, and had found other things to like about Blondie, like...well, Debbie Harry’s lipstick, for one. Or sometimes, to be honest, Chris Stein looking pretty good on the back of the record there, something Noel preferred not to notice about himself. And the music, naturally… Noel pulled his mind back to the real matter at hand.

“Have you been messing with my shaving kit?” Noel asked. 

“No.” 

“You did, though.” 

“I didn’t!”

“Liam, for Christ’s sake. You have toilet roll stuck to your face.” He did, too: a twist of white tissue sprouting out of his chin like a goat’s beard. 

Liam’s face clouded but not, Noel thought, with guilt. Trouble, more like. “Needed a shave, didn’t I?” Liam said. “Tried to scissors it and almost lost my lip.”

“Y’can’t do it like that, it doesn’t work,” Noel said. 

“Right. That’s why I needed a razor,” Liam said, seeming pleased that Noel understood.

Noel didn’t wonder that his brother hadn’t asked their mother for shaving gear. Mam didn’t have time or money for that sort of thing, and Liam and Noel both knew to get what they needed however they could. Mam took them shopping for clothes once a year in the fall, bought them a few Christmas things, and gave them money for the record store on their birthdays. Any more than that, Noel figured, was more than she had and a good deal more than they deserved.

Noel leaned closer. “What have you done to your face?” he asked. Liam’s face was a mess, red scrapes along his chin and razor burn along the sides. “Doesn’t that hurt?” 

“I fuckin’ shaved, like I fuckin’ said.” Liam replied irritably. “Done my best, but it weren’t very good, were it. Burns like a mother, too.”

Noel sighed. “All right. Get in ‘ere and I’ll show you how to do it proper-like. And then you’re gonna get your own stuff and not touch my kit, right? And take my shirt off while you’re at it. Why are you fucking sleeping in my shirt?”

“Yours are softer than mine,” Liam explained as he pulled it over his head and tossed it, not into the hamper, but onto Noel’s own bed.

“That’s not possible. We got the same package of white T-shirts,” Noel said.

“You got the v-necks and I got the round ones. The v ones are softer,” Liam insisted, and he began to get out of bed.

“Wait a minute. Are you wearing my fucking pyjama bottoms?” Liam had the grace to blush at that one. “Fucking...take them off. I’m going in there to get the kit ready. And when you come in you’d better not have anything of mine on.”

Noel went in and began to lay everything out around the basin. Liam would probably never do it properly, but at least he could be shown how once. Noel had had to figure it out himself, and it had taken some trial and error to get it right. Their da had still been around when Noel had first needed to shave but Noel wouldn’t have asked him for help if the house was burning down, so on his own it was. Noel could do better than that for Liam, even if the kid was a twat and a thief. 

Liam slouched in, still shirtless, but at least in his own jeans. “Better?” he smirked. 

Noel looked. “Jesus. Pull 'em up, at least. Be decent.” Liam was so skinny that his jeans only caught at the crest of his arse, and the fronts were so low that they showed not only the drift of fuzz on his belly but where the hair started to coarsen below. He obediently hiked them up, but they slid back down immediately. “Never mind,” Noel sighed.”Come on over ‘ere and let’s get this done.”

Liam stood beside him in the mirror. The bathroom was tiny, and they seemed to get in each other’s way without even stirring. The basin rim was only just big enough to balance all Noel’s things on, and it was easy to knock things off with a stray elbow. 

“Just--be careful with my stuff, alright?” he asked.

Liam just blinked, serene, like he did sometimes. He looked like an attentive, inert little owl that way, and it made Noel unsure if he should reward him for not being a shit for two seconds, or prepare for the inevitable moment when he would begin to be a shit again. Noel felt like he usually chose wrong at these times, because honestly Liam’s attention unnerved him and he always put a foot wrong. He ignored both impulses and began to tell his brother everything he knew about getting a good shave.

“Okay, so you’ve got to start with hot water, right. Usually you want to do it when you’re just out of the shower, but for now we’ll just pretend. So.” Noel motioned at the spigot. “Start with hot water, then.”

“Oh. Why d’you do that?” Liam asked, while they waited for the water to warm. 

“Because beard hairs are hard as shit. Hot water softens ‘em up a bit. If you don’t do it, you’ll look like somebody tried to shave a frozen supermarket goose. No, that’s not enough. _Hot.”_

“Ow,” said Liam as he splashed his face. “I can’t, it’s too hot.”

“Toughen the fuck up, twat.”

_“Ow.”_

“Fine,” Noel said. “We’ll do it this way, like how they do it at the barber’s.” He soaked a towel in the blistering water and moved to put it around Liam’s face. Liam jerked away, wary. “It’s nice, I promise,” Noel said, and Liam allowed him to wrap the steaming thing around his face and press it against his skin. 

Liam’s little eyelids drooped, translucent as a kitten’s. “ ‘at is nice,” he admitted through the towel. “D’you get shaved at the barber’s?” 

“Of course not. Fuckin’ expensive, that is. But Da used to take me with him when he’d go for a haircut, and they was always doing ‘em in there. I guess you were too little to go.” 

He remembered it very clearly, Liam being just two or three years old and Noel feeling like a big man when he went off on a Saturday with Da. Some days Da was cheerful and charming, and his fists were uncurled for a time, and just walking down the street with him felt like walking in sunshine. Most of the time Noel envied Liam for being allowed to stay so close to Mam without being called a poofter, but on those days he felt that he was the lucky one.

“Better now?” he asked and pressed the towel to Liam’s face again. Liam nodded, eyes still closed. Noel peeled it away and found Liam’s face warm, soft, and humid, with a little bristle standing out all over. “Eh, I see now.You did it dry. No wonder you hurt yourself. Come on now, let’s get some foam on there.” 

Liam blinked as though waking up and, when Noel prodded him again, filled his palm with shaving foam. 

“No, not like that,” Noel said as Liam spread it over his chin. “You’ve got to get it everywhere, haven’t you? It’s got to go all over, or else you’ll be hitting dry spots.”

“You do it then, if you know so much about it.” said Liam, and plopped down on the toilet cover. 

“All right, then. I do know about it. And’ll do a top job of it, too. Best shave you’ll ever have in your life.” 

Noel sprayed shaving foam into his own hand and stopped, looking at Liam sprawled out on the toilet. He’d never shaved anyone else and the angle was more awkward than he’d expected. He edged closer on one side, rubbed the amber-lemony smelling stuff between his palms, and spread it over his brother’s face.

He smiled to himself at the way Liam closed his eyes and lifted his chin. He was so easy, Liam. It was the same when they were kids. No matter how busy Mam was, if Noel ever felt he wanted a cuddle or a hug, Liam was easy to get one from. All he had to do was throw his own pillow down on Liam’s bed or make him budge over on the sofa with an extra comic book and there he had it, a warm cuddly body for as long as he wanted. Noel couldn’t remember that Liam had ever once told him to get up or get his own chair. 

They didn’t do that so much any more, of course. But the fact was that Liam was always ready to share a chair for a movie or a football match, and pretty often Noel found himself in one with him. Soothing, it was. Just like this, Liam’s trusting little face under his hands. 

“Ah. Your beard’s gonna be like mine,” he observed. “Thick and fine-like. Hard to get off. Like shaving a mink or summat, innit.” He gave Liam’s face another rub and rinsed his hands. Now the razor.

“You’ve got to get the razor wet too, and make sure you get the good ones,” he told his brother.

“Those are expensive though.”

“You don’t buy ‘em, you knick ‘em.” Noel rolled his eyes. “It’s best if you can go into the shop with a girl, because no one thinks girls steal anything. Two lads together, and they’ll never take their eyes off you. But get the good ones, metal, like this. The nice ones have two blades, or sometimes even three. But each brand has its own handle and blade that fit together, right? So you have to be sure to get ones that match. And get your own store to nick from! I use the Boots on Stockport Road, so you’ve got to get your own place. If you go there, I’ll pound you, got it?”

Liam nodded that he did. He watched the razor in Noel’s hand curiously, without fear. When Noel told him to lean back he did it without hesitation, only pausing to tuck a towel between the cold tank and his back. It occurred to Noel that he wouldn’t have been so fearless himself if a man were coming at him with a razor, even a safety one like this. It made him a little dizzy, that trust. 

Noel bent over Liam’s face and found that the angle didn’t work now. He moved from one side to the other, switched the razor from his left hand to the right, and couldn’t do it. He was too scared to hurt him. He lifted Liam’s chin again as if he were about to start and just stayed there, looking. 

“Come on, lad. Don’t be all day about it. Sit down if y’need to,” Liam told him. Sit on his--but he was right, Noel realized. Facing him between his knees was really the only way to do it. Maybe they could do without, if they had a barber’s chair. But as it was....

“Not yet,” Noel murmured, and pushed Liam’s knees apart so that he could stand one leg between them. That was better. Noel bent and began to really concentrate, narrating quietly as he went. 

“You’ll pick a starting spot and do it the same way every time. I like to start at the top, at the cheekbone, and go down. And just...really lightly, you know?” he demonstrated, like a butterfly. “Short strokes, and not hard. Really short, like a little kiss, see? You’ll always use a sharp blade, so you don’t have to press it. ‘Ere y’are, over by your ears it’s extra tough, right? But it’s nice and flat, so just go easy. Always, always go downward, never up. Going up is how you burn yourself and get them little pimples. Just take your time.” 

He finished with the outer part of Liam’s right side and turned him to reach the left. “Mm. Your beard is gonna grow right up to your cheekbones, like mine does. You have to let the littlest ones right up on your cheekbones just grow, though. Otherwise you’ll end up shaving up to your eyelids, and y’ can’t win wi’ that.” 

It was there already, Noel could see, a net of golden-brown peach fuzz over the fair skin under Liam’s eyes. He left it alone, only pausing to wipe a droplet with his finger. His back was beginning to hurt, bent over like this, despite the way he had his feet spread wide to reach him. The room was so small he didn’t even have to move to rinse the blade, just turn his body in place.

He bent again to examine the area around Liam’s mouth, the tricky bit. It was so soft and complicated here, and his beard was already coming in pretty dark and thick in all the wee hollows. Noel didn’t know how he hadn’t seen it before. He ran his finger over the outer edge of Liam’s lip, where the fine baby hairs turned masculine. Liam’s eyes were open now, watching him, and he lifted his chin a little as if to tell him to do it again. Noel did it again.

“Like this, now,” Liam said quietly, and his hands went to Noel’s hips, guiding him downward. Noel sank until he straddled Liam’s knees, feeling as if he were moving through water.

Liam’s chest was still bare. His nipples were tiny and pink, puckered in the cooling room, and his skin was beginning to stipple with goosebumps. “You’re cold,” Noel murmured. “I’ll hurry now.” As he said this, Liam’s hands seemed to grip him a little tighter. “Not long,” Noel promised. He wasn’t sure of what he was promising, but Liam blinked again, content. He wriggled a little further down on the toilet cover, and his hands didn’t relax on Noel’s hips any. 

Noel went into a sort of trance of concentration. Light little touches like a butterfly. Sharp, so you don’t have to push. Easy. He slid the razor over Liam’s skin, leaving gleaming trails of smoothness in its wake. Occasionally he turned his own lip this way or that, showing him what to do without speaking. Liam watched him, attentive, unbreathing, and did exactly what he should. Noel opened his mouth to praise him, but found he couldn’t speak. Instead he put the razor between his teeth and ran his fingers over Liam’s face, cheekbone to clavicle, to make sure it was perfect. Liam’s eyes pressed shut, convulsively, and he bit his lip. Noel did it once more, just to be sure.

Liam lifted his mouth, soft and open. Noel touched it, first that clean-shaven margin and then, delicately, the inside. Liam let him do it. Not kissing, not tonguing or closing over his finger, just—allowing it. Letting Noel touch him. Noel slid his fingers over every surface of his mouth. His teeth, which were perfect, the fine-ridged roof of it, and-- Noel took a ragged breath-- his tongue, which curled thirstily around him just once before allowing him to explore, all the way to the back, until Liam dug his fingers in and shuddered with the effort to remain still. 

Noel withdrew his fingers. Liam hadn't moved a muscle through the whole thing, except to slide downward and pull Noel closer until they were nothing but two hard and hungry boys, pressed together at the edge of a precipice, half dressed and hardly daring to breathe. Liam's mouth remained open, and twisted as though he were going to beg. 

“That's it,” Noel said, and his voice sounded rough in the tiled bath. “That's the way y’ do it.” 

Liam touched his own face. “Is it nice?” he asked. Noel nodded, wordless. Liam slid a little further and pushed up against him, so unselfconscious, so perfect and dirty. Noel let loose a groan and, just for a moment, let himself grind down on Liam’s lap, feeling like he was about to fly out of his skin. Liam looked at him, wondering, astonished to discover he wasn’t the only one. His mouth began to form a question.

“It--it’s nice,” Noel broke in. “It’s good. That’s good. I’ve got to---” he bolted from the room, not even staying to slam the door. He needed out, he needed cool air and a city street and room to think about something, anything else, even Debbie Harry with her tongue curled out to touch her little guitar player, perfect and bloodless in black and white.

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to likamadonna, once and future queen of the shaving fic.
> 
> The Heart of Glass single jacket can be seen here. https://jeevey.tumblr.com/post/616936871101153280/for-everyone-who-read-my-story-razorblade-this-is


End file.
